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This year should be last call for 'State Patty's Day': Editorial

State Patty's day 2013

State Patty's Day clad kids cross West College Ave. in State College, Pa. Saturday morning, Feb. 23, 2013 during celebrations for the 2013 State Patty's Day. Despite a ban on alcohol at dozens of local bars and restaurants students appear to still find a way to celebrate the unofficial, loca holiday.
Mark Pynes | mpynes@pennlive.com
(Mark Pynes | mpynes@pennlive.com, file)

The era of "Animal House"-scale antics on our college campuses and college towns is something that we should all strive to put behind us.

Harold Ramis, the Chicago-bred entertainer who died this week at age 69, made an indelible imprint on American cinema by starring in, writing or directing some of the best-loved comedies of the late 20th century. They included “Ghostbusters,” “Stripes,” and the film that launched a thousand Pennsylvania political cliches — “Groundhog Day.”

But if you’re a college student of a certain age, you may remember the acerbic Ramis best for "Animal House, his 1978 movie starring John Belushi.

“Animal House,” was the Boomer generation’s love-letter to the alcohol-soaked excesses of its undergraduate days. And in the more than four decades since its release, the movie, as outsized and preposterous as it is, became a kind of indispensable guide to how to have a good time at college.

Even though Belushi played his drunken buffoon John "Bluto" Blutarski for laughs, the actual toll of alcohol abuse on college campuses is anything but a laughing matter. And before you tut-tut at yet another newspaper editorial shaking its head over college drinking, consider these numbers: 1,825; 690,000; 97,000; 599,000 and 150,000.

Consider a few more: About a quarter of all college students report academic consequences from drinking, including missing class, falling behind, doing poorly on exams or papers, or just getting lower grades all around. And, according to the institute’s research, 1.2 and 1.5 percent of say they’ve tried commit suicide within the past year due to drinking or drug abuse.

According to the institute's research, four out of five college students drink alcohol. And about half of those who drink also engage in binge-drinking.

So it was reassuring to learn this week that officials at Penn State University had redoubled their efforts to clamp down on the student-created bacchanal known as "State Patty’s Day."

They have offered cash payments to bars and taverns that opt to close their doors, rather than serve alcohol to would-be revelers during the unofficial holiday set to take place this weekend.

Nearly all downtown bars and taverns are participating. One establishment has said it will serve alcohol only with meals. Another establishment, as of press time, had yet to make up its mind whether to go dry on Saturday, PennLive's Ana Orso reported.

The approach has worked. Last year, downtown bars and bottle shops shut their doors and local police reported a 37 percent decrease in crime from the prior year.

This year, area law enforcement has upped the ante for anyone contemplating drunken mischief or those who engage in it after one too many pints. Campus and borough police will be out in full force, with an assist from State Police Liquor Control Enforcement officers and other regional police forces.

Borough ordinance officers are also expected to closely monitor the apartment complexes and rental units scattered across downtown. They’ll be backed up by the local courts, which are expected to impose the maximum penalties on violators — local and non-local alike.

And as if that’s not enough, fees in downtown parking garages will be upped to game-day rates for most of the weekend — which could have the salutary effect of guaranteeing that revelers who aren’t scared away by high fees will be too cash-starved to party too hard.

Let’s be clear: There’s nothing wrong with the occasional drink for those who are legally allowed to have one. And among those of us who bend the elbow, it's not uncommon to have one pint too many.

But the era of “Animal House”-scale antics on our college campuses and college towns is something that we should all strive to put behind us.

“State Patty’s Day” is an inheritor to that tradition. And it’s time for last call.